![[small-web-version_harperfree_poster.jpg]](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_WGczmWu7Wwc/SdCJyy2LN1I/AAAAAAAABWE/ABYCkbJaKaQ/s1600/small-web-version_harperfree_poster.jpg)
Harpercons: 160 seats, wiping the floor with even the NDP. Ontario and the west haven’t even been counted yet. Harpercon landslide. So Dippers, still feeling so smug? Big whoop de doo for NDP official opposition. They’ll be rendered useless. Window dressing who take up seats in house of commons. It’s Stevie Spiteful’s way or the highway.
I TOLD YOU SO!!!
Oh, and a parting gift to those who were wishing for a harpercon majority and bitched and whined about “unwanted elections”?? Harper could conceivably change that too, as he has a flare for the unprecedented. Remember the slogan on the Harpercon signs of the 2009 by-election of “De l’action, pas d’election!”
Even if Harper decided to feel generous and have a symbolic election, the Harpercons will keep majorities for a long, long time.
The country is fucked.
As for Liberals ‘rebuilding’. What the hell for? There probably won’t be another election. Ever.
And don’t think separatism is out yet. Bloc never in a position to call a referendum anyway. Only provincial gov’t can. The PQ when they come to power in next election will.
Hope nobody has had so much as a zit in their teens–in Amerikan private for profit health insurance industry, that is a pre-existing condition, thus precluding you from health care.
Before blaming the NDP, save a little for blue Liberals. They elected Harper.
ck Reply:
May 2nd, 2011 at 11:13 PM
That’s because of the NDP alliance with Harper in all this. They started a pissing contest with the Liberals. As I said, following the debates, NDP stopped attacking Harper. This was a trick to get Blue Grits to the cons and it worked like a charm.
Say bye-bye to health care!
I will probably lose my job because of this Harper majority win!
It’s easy to lay blame, it’s harder to take it.
Whoever in the Grits tower of power thought it was a good idea to call an election without a strategy to defeat the reconstituted Tories (yes, that meant working with both NDP and Green party members) deserves this result tonight.
Next, you cannot possibly think you can win with such weak leadership (both Iggy and Stefan…to a lesser extent Paul).
Last, the Grits have drifted slowly but surely away from what we have been…a centrist party with a centrist vision. This little bit left, little bit right and generally all over the place platforms of the last half decade has to go. I’ve supported the Grits for more than 20 years and I couldn’t tell you what they stand for.
Tomorrow morning, there needs to be a strategy meeting detailing, point by point, a new and relevant platform that is easily digestible by a Canadian public inundated daily by largely American media.
Lastly, at least we won’t have an election for 4 years…for the first time in how long?
ck Reply:
May 2nd, 2011 at 11:51 PM
Oh and if the Liberals and the rest of the opposition let Harper go on a free pass for the contempt of parliament, you’d all be chiding them. Damned if they do; damned if they don’t.
LeftCoastd00d Reply:
May 3rd, 2011 at 12:09 AM
Contempt of parliament is some bullshit that NOBODY cares about in this current climate other than government geeks and freaks. You can barely even explain it to a public at large that is A) almost half immigrant and B) slammed over the head day after day by American media.
Here’s the scoop, if you have been paying attention to media at large, the word liberal (little L) is demonized daily. The other half of this story is what exactly did the Grits stand for in this election that made them stand out? What was the issue of this election other than don’t rock the boat and you can’t trust Iggy? Our weak leader NEVER controlled the narrative of this election nor was he able to redefine it.
It’s a tough night for sure. But there is a couple of massive rays of light in all of this. FINALLY, the province of Quebec has awoken from it’s stupor and stopped voting almost entirely PQ for the first time in nearly two decades. The next is the NDP have an awfully lot of awfully green members coming in. Lastly is the last time the Tories had a majority is that they pissed so many of us off that they had a PQ like result.
There are dangers though that the centre and everything left could be divided even further with now the Greens on the stage for the next run.
I honestly don’t know what to do right now. My heart is breaking for my dear, beloved Canada. I do not want to be ruled by ignorant, bigoted, corporatist troglodytes and bible-thumping clowns. I told my family some years ago when Bush became President that if I ever saw the same happen here I’d seriously consider leaving Canada; that day has now arrived with all it’s nightmarish promise and I may have to go.
N.
ck Reply:
May 2nd, 2011 at 11:50 PM
If you and your wife are under the age of 40. I suggest you move overseas while you’re still young enough to be eligible for a work visa. My husband and I, sadly don’t have this option as we’re both too old. Get out while you can.
In Quebec, I will be working to get the PQ elected, even with that Gawd awful Pauline Marois. Then sovereignty. I have no love for Canada anymore. In fact, I am terrified of life under Harper.
This is a sad day for Canada. Harper will give this country to, the giant wealthy corporations, he works for.
Harper has thieved from our tax dollars, and gave billions to the wealthiest corporations in the world. He has wasted billions on two wars. $40 billion for jets. Utterly more billions wasted on prisons. This will now be a fascist, dictatorship regime, we will be forced to live in. Well not me, I had arranged a move to another country, in case this disaster would occur. Life in Canada will be, a thousand times worse than it was, with a minority Conservative government.
I respectfully disagree, but tonight is not the right time to talk about it. Let’s lick our wounds and fight another day.
ck Reply:
May 3rd, 2011 at 12:23 AM
Fight? For what? It’s Harperland indefinitely!
As a Quebecer, I have option left–Quebec Sovereignty. Only escape.
Lick my wounds? Are you joking? this con majority, I will likely lose my job! With no Ei to fall back on. I’m over 40 and ageism is alive and well in the private sector for employment. Sex kitten I am not.
friends, we are all hurting, but 60% did not vote for harper. What that 60% does next will matter. It is still, and always has been up to us to keep opposing what is vile.
We will keep alive what is precious to us, even if it is among each other until it can live freely again in our country.
Grieve, but please don’t give up.
ck Reply:
May 3rd, 2011 at 12:18 AM
Don’t use that 60% didn’t vote for Harper, please. It’s meaningless. They got a majority. Opposition will be useless. Place holders in HOC all quiet and hanging on Harper’s every word. Why? They’ll have no choice. Lizzy May is useless and will continue to be so.
No use opposing reality. It’ll just land you in one of Harper’s super jails. Just like G20.
My next battle will be for an independent Quebec. And yes, Gilles Duceppe got it right in his farewell speech…it’s a last chance for federalist party. NDP ran many separatists and campaigned on being Bloc lite in la belle province.
This is not Canada. This is Harperland. Time to start minding our ps and qs.
There is nothing anymore.
One thing you have to respect about the Dippers is their astonishing ability to shirk all responsibility for the logical (albeit self-serving) consequences of their acts. The NDP (Cap’n Rub’n Tug) didn’t give a shit about how well Harper did. Their target, as always, was the Libs. They helped Harper defeat Martin. They ganged up with Harper to bludgeon Dion over the eminently sensible carbon tax. They carried Harper’s water in this one.
Sorry, three strikes and you’re out. They’re filth. Yet out of that realization comes the path to Liberal revival. Treat them as what they are, vermin of the Left to be met like the vermin of the Right. Reclaim the political centre where neither of them naturally wants to be anyway.
ck Reply:
May 3rd, 2011 at 12:20 AM
Liberal revival? Whatever for? harper is in until he croaks.
The opposition will be utterly useless. Thought Dizzy miss Lizzy was cute when she said she’d try to get proportional representation. She better ask for too much–if Harper gives another election in 4 years, it’ll be because somebody spiked his metamucil.
Vive le Quebec libre!
We earned this. All of us. For failing to make ourselves heard. For not tearing down a lazy, complicit, corporatist media. For failing to force the coalition issue in 2008 and every day since.
I don’t know what more we could have done, but I feel utterly broken right now. Failed and a failure all at once.
Every day it gets harder to remember what being proud of my country feels like.
ck Reply:
May 3rd, 2011 at 12:48 AM
We couldn’t have done anything, short of buying a media conglomerate. Canada is further to the right now than the US. In fact, Us Tea-baggers look like raging Marxists compared to Canada.
Uncommoner Reply:
May 3rd, 2011 at 1:17 AM
If you’re right then I don’t think I can live here anymore. Maybe I can emigrate to Quebec and help work towards sovereignty? My father was born in Mount Royal, if that helps.
Holy crap I lost my last post. Short form: I hate the LPC and NDP for failing us. F*ck both of them.
If I were younger, I would leave this country. I have cringed with what damage Harper has done with a minority government. I am totally fearful of what is next with a Harper majority. I have absolutely no time for anyone who tries to paint this a positive.
ck Reply:
May 3rd, 2011 at 9:34 AM
There is no positive. In fact, prepare to be terrified.
[...] time to work with. There will be at least one more election in Canada — contrary to what some scared people are saying, there will probably be many more. This is good, because the core Harper team is so [...]
Yes – damn all those working-class NDP volunteers who hated Harper so much they dedicated the last 2 months of their life to running campaigns across Canada.
I’m scared. My partner was in tears. And I don’t like nor trust Jack Layton.
But I can’t start the blame game yet…
ck Reply:
May 3rd, 2011 at 10:29 PM
I spent the night sick to my stomach literally.
I don’t think your partner was alone to be in tears.
However, while perhaps those volunteers you speak of had good noble intentions, Jack certainly doesn’t. He hasn’t since 2004. When conservative pundits like Timmy Powers, Lorne Gunter and Tasha Kheirridin are cheering for Jack and left of center publications’ columnists like some of those from the Tyee are mocking him, that sounds alarm bells. From the Tyee:
Harper’s the only person in the county happier about the NDP’s showing than Jack Layton because the NDP did to the Liberals exactly what Reformers and Alliance members used to do to the Tories. And thanks to the realities of parliamentary democracy, Layton has performed a surrealistic electoral magic trick –- he keeps gaining more seats and less power. In 2004 he had 19 seats, but held the balance of power in a Liberal minority government. Today his seats are in triple digits and the only real power he’s going to have in Ottawa when parliament resumes is the ability to order pizza at Stornoway.
That sums it up right. Jack gets more seats by attacking the Liberals but harper? Not so much. Yet, he keeps having less power. Somebody should’ve perhaps taught him it’s quality not quantity.
As for the decimation of the Bloc, another Tyee columnist, I think, has an accurate prediction:
It would be foolish to think that Quebec separatism has ended and indeed I would argue that the extent of the BQ loss was bad news. While they were in Ottawa in some numbers, separatism could be handled by dealing with the BQ across the floor. Now it is leaderless even though their twin, the PQ, seems poised to win Quebec provincially. It is as I said in a speech some years ago: “If there were not a Bloc Quebecois we would have to invent one.” Separatism will be different in Quebec. Although Stephen Harper has representation, sovereignists will be looking at Jack Layton to express their ambitions and he won’t do so. Prime Minister Harper will use the public purse as best he can as is traditional, but I foresee a great deal of ferment ahead.
There’s always another election, even in Iraq. The point about it not mattering, could come to pass if work isn’t done over the next four years. Liberals, NDP, and Greens cannot wait a year.